South Africa President travels to Zimbabwe

Mar 16th, 2010 2:05 PM UTC
By Chris Scott

CNN reports on President Zuma’s attempts to assist Zimbabwe’s unity government, which consists of a fragile power-sharing agreement:

During his three-day visit, Zuma will assess progress “with regards to the implementation of the power-sharing agreement,” according to his office.

Bitter political rivals President Robert Mugabe and opposition party leader Morgan Tsvangirai formed the unity government last February after a disputed presidential election. Tsvangirai became the country’s prime minister and Mugabe kept his seat as president.

Zuma took over from his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki, as facilitator of the fragile unity government deal. The pact was signed in September 2008 following spates of post-election violence, but problems have plagued the forced marriage between Mugabe and Tsvangirai.

Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change has accused Mugabe’s Zanu-PF of failing to fully implement the deal. And Mugabe has threatened to end the unity government and reclaim power.

Though Mbeki managed to get the two parties to agree to govern jointly, he was accused of being a Mugabe sympathizer.

Before taking office, Zuma showed signs that he might take a tougher stance against the 86-year-old ruler. But critics say Zuma has not and have pointed to recent attempts to get Western leaders to withdraw sanctions against Mugabe and other members of his party.

TAGS: South Africa, Zimbabwe